Top Investors Brush off Khashoggi Affair and Pour Money into Saudi Arabia

The
murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi Arabian embassy
had created a lot of heat on investors to stop investing in the
country. However, it is now quite clear that the investors have
decided to brush off that affair and pour money in lucrative sectors.
Although the Saudi government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
have denied any involvement in the case, it damaged relations with
the western world. As a matter of fact, some companies in certain
sectors went so far as to dissociate from their involvement in Saudi
Arabia.

However,
the biggest investors have now decided to get back to business in the
country. Nick Wilson, who is the head of the Gulf Investment Fund,
said as much regarding the fact that business must go on despite the
shocking incident. His fund is planning to invest more in the
country. Wilson said, “There’s too much opportunity for
investment in Saudi Arabia. A nasty thing like that happens and
shakes people up for a couple of weeks, but at the end of the day
business is business.” In addition to that, some of the blue chip
corporations of the western world are going to honour their
commitments and pour money into the country.

For
instance, Honeywell International’s $3.5 billion project with Saudi
oil giant Aramco is going to go forward as planned, while Dow
Chemicals is not only going to complete its polymer plant worth $100
million but complete a study on another project by next year.
Needless to say, things are going to continue business as usual, and
it is understandable considering the fact how much money is at stake.
Back in 2017, General Electric signed a deal worth $15 billion with
the Saudi government and a spokesperson reiterated that it was going
to honour its commitments. He said, “We continue to build upon our
agreements to support local infrastructure and growth across the
power, oil and gas, healthcare, aviation and digital sectors.”

The
Saudi authorities and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are anxious to
make the country as friendly to business as possible, after the
events of the past few months. The Prince also toured China, India
and Pakistan last month and signed business deals that amounted to
around $90 billion. Last but not least, Saudi Arabia is trying to
attract investments in the country and offered attractive breaks to
investors as part of a decade long industrial programme. They expect
to generate around $427 billion on investments over the next decade.

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